Clue

There's a rule in my house. Every so often I will find myself home at night, completely and utterly stumped at what I want to watch. Nothing really seems that appealing. This led to the development of a rule, When in doubt watch Clue. It hasn't let me down yet. It invariably leads to a one man quote-a-thon as I recite the movie back right along with it. I could watch this movie a hundred times and not get sick of it. In fact, I'm pretty sure I have. Now, in the month of December, the comedy gem is celebrating it's 30th anniversary yet it remains just as timeless and entertaining as ever. With an all star cast of comedy legends, it remains the funniest movie ever based on a board game.

In New England at the height of the McCarthy era, six strangers gather at an isolated house on a stormy night. They each received a letter inviting them to come and that they were each to be known by a pseudonym. The group includes Col. Mustard (played by Martin Mull), Mrs. White (played by Madeline Kahn), Miss Scarlett (played by Leslie Ann Warren), Professor Plum (played by Christopher Lloyd), Mrs. Peacock (played by Ellen Burstyn) and Mr. Green (played by Michael McKean). Overseeing the group is the house's butler, Wadsworth (played by Tim Curry), with assistance from the house's maid, Yvette (played by Colleen Camp). There is also a mystery host, Mr. Boddy (played by Lee Ving). After dinner it is revealed that each guest there is being blackmailed and that the mystery guest, Mr. Boddy is their blackmailer. Wadsworth reveals he has locked all the doors and refuses to unlock them until the matter is resolved. Things take an unexpected turn when Mr. Boddy gives a package to each of the other guests, which are revealed to be the iconic Clue weapons: a revolver, a candlestick, a lead pipe, rope, a dagger, and a wrench. He states the only way to resolve the matter is for one of the guests to kill Wadsworth and shuts off the lights to the room. The plan backfires and Mr. Boddy is the one who winds up dead. Each guest claims they didn't do it, which leads to a madcap search for answers as they try to figure out who did it, where and with what weapon.

Even today, the idea of making a movie out of a board game seems rather crazy. But, if you were going to do it, making one out of Clue would be the one I would choose. Making it a comedy was a novel touch while getting some the best comedic talents of all time to star in it made it even better. Jonathan Lynn directed the movie and wrote the screenplay as well, from a story he developed with John Landis. The result is easily one of the wittiest and most quotable movies I have ever seen. The dialogue, in true farce fashion, comes fast and furious, so much so it's near impossible to catch everything the first time around. The entire cast brings their A-game to the material, which isn't hard since the script is so much fun. The two stand outs for me though are Madeline Kahn, who brings such a coolness to Mrs. White, who has been widowed at least twice, pretty much steals the show whether she is explaining the fates of her first two husbands or explaining the rage she felt towards another individual. The other stand out is Tim Curry, who for the bulk of the movie acts as a sort of ringleader for this six person circus of mayhem, until we get to the end where in which he reveals the solution to the mystery. This kicks off a marathon of a monologue as he takes the rest of the cast through the night's events in breakneck fashion. It's a brilliant moment of comedic acting and it still blows me away to this day.   

The film's design captures the famous setup of the board game, with all the familiar rooms present and accounted for down to the parquet floor design resembling the squares of the board game. It also has the nonsensical secret passageways that make no structural sense in context of the rest of the house. Of course, this is all part of the charm of the film and it's commentary on the nonsense of both the whodunit and farce genres. In no way is this more evident than in the film's multiple endings. When originally released theatrically, the film had one of three endings, a gimmick designed to entice audience members to see the film multiple times. Instead, it turned them off and no one went, resulting in the film bombing at the box office. When released on home video, all three endings play one right after the other, with a simple title card breaking up the separate endings. This format plays much better with audiences and may have been more successful if it had been released this way theatrically. Anyway, to make a long story short (too late!), the multiple endings show just how interchangeable the solution to any given whodunit could be. There always multiple suspects with valid motives and anyone of them could have done it. The fact that this can easily be swapped out for another pokes fun at this trope of the genre. There is even a running gag throughout the endings with one character saying one thing still didn't make sense with another replying, "One thing?!"

Clue has gained a second life over the last thirty years, becoming a cult classic almost on the same level as another Tim Curry film, The Rocky Horror Picture Show, and has been embraced by the same audience with shadow casts giving Clue the same treatment. There have also been midnight screening quote-a-thons where the audience is encouraged to quote the movie along with it. The film has long been a favorite of mine since I was a kid and is certainly one that rewards rewatching. For a mystery, that is quite an accomplishment. But then again, as the film makes it perfectly clear, the ending is inconsequential. All the fun is in getting there. Although, to be fair the endings are pretty funny too.